Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/428

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. JUNE s.m

in the seventeenth century, from some old accounts, showing how it was their duty to throw open the common lands of the village, and to prevent all encroachments."

Court Leet, or View of Frank Pledge, as defined by Stephen's ' Commentary,'

" a court of record, appointed to be held once in the year and not oftener, before the steward of the leet, being the King's Court granted by charter to the lords of those hundreds or manors whose original intent was to view the frank pledges, that is, the freemen within the liberty, who, according to the institiition of the great Alfred, were all mutually pledges for the good behaviour of each other," is a thing of the past in this city, as it has fallen, to quote the same authority, "in most parts of the kingdom into total desuetude, though in some places it is still periodically held before the steward, but only for the transaction of the administrative business of the manor."

With the Court Leet have, of course, dis- appeared burleymen from our midst also. But the blue-coated creations of Sir Robert Peel have more than replaced them.

J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. [See 'H.E.D.']

SHAKSPEARIANA.

1 OTHELLO,' I. i. 21 (5 th S. xi. 383 ; 9 th S. i. 83, 283, 422, 483 ; ii. 203, 402, 544 iii. 64, 222, 282, 363). DR. SPENCE'S communication seems to involve a charge of controversial dishonesty. To this I am bound to reply.

I have never accepted, or supposed that I should be thought to have accepted, DR. SPENCE'S scansion of the line in dispute. We read by accent, not by quantity ; and the ex- pression " two long syllables " was therefore unfortunate, but I used it for brevity's sake merely. My meaning was this : The accent falls on the second syllable of " affairs." It makes no difference to the sound whether this word has two syllables or three ; if it has three, then one is redundant, and the verse still drags.

For fear of further misunderstanding (but in any case this is my last word to DR. SPENCE), I must say that a redundant syllable is not necessarily disagreeable ; nor yet two " long syllables," or two sibilants, at the end of a verse. DR. SPENCE'S line is, however, a dis- agreeable one ; and I persist in holding that Shakespeare cannot have written it.

C. C. B.

[No further controversy on this subject will be inserted.]

' OTHELLO,' V. ii. 1 (9 th S. i. 283, 422 ; iii. 304). If readers will take the trouble to look up my note, so far back as 9 th S. i. 422, and

compare it with MR. DEY'S at last reference, I leave them, without thinking it necessary to add a single word, to determine whether the " cause " which was so foul that Othello would not name it to the " chaste stars" was, as MR. DEY thinks, Desdemona's "disposition to infidelity "(!), or the actual adultery with which in foulest terms far too foul to quote Othello had charged her. See IV. ii. 65-89.

R. M. SPENCE, D.D. Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

'ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,' III. x. 9-11 (9 th S. iii. 362). Dr. Johnson, in quoting this passage in his 'Dictionary,' has the words "ribald nag." This is a powerful and poetical description of a licentious woman that has been ridden by many men. "Riband-red nag " is applicable to nothing except a horse which is about to be sold at a fair. Such an alteration seems to me to change fine poetry into meaningless prose. Steevens and Malone have got " ribald-rid." The meaning of this is that Cleopatra had been ridden by lewd men. E. YARDLEY.

P.S. Since I wrote on this subject, it has occurred to me that perhaps the note which I answered is a joke. I remember that the late DR. BREWER was once facetious in a similar way in * Shakspeariana.'

' CORIOLANUS,' I. ix. 46 (9 th S. iii. 63). When Steele growes soft, as the Parasites Silke, Let him be made an Overture for th' Warres.

First Folio.

When steel grows soft, as the parasite's silk, Let him be made a coverture for the wars.

Globe.

I offer as a further emendation of the original text :

When steel grows soft, as the parasites' silks, Let them be made a coverture for the wars.

It may easily be seen how the manifestly wrong " him " got into the print. T, the final letter of "Let," has been omitted as the initial letter of the next word "them," and then -hem has been converted into " him." If I am right as to " them," then for " silk," as its antecedent, we must read "silks." Shake- speare uses " silk " and " silks " indiscrimin- ately :

Prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk. ' Cymbeline,' III. iii.

Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman.' King Lear,' III. iv. 96.

In the Folio " Parasites " has no apostrophe. I place it after the s as the plural seems more appropriate with " silks " following.

R. M. SPENCE, D.D.

Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

,

no- rf !